What’s the story, Kolo Toure?

Kolo Toure looks to be on his way out of Anfield this summer

Kolo Toure’s season took a turn for the worst last year. When he signed, he went straight in to the first team as partner to Daniel Agger, with Skrtel occupying the bench after the an awful run of form the previous season and Sakho yet to be signed.

Liverpool fans were initially very surprised and amused by Toure’s performances; immediately instilling a more physical presence in our backline, he headed balls away from danger and carried the ball forward with gusto. He even came close to scoring a few times.

Ultimately though, Kolo was signed to be the fourth choice centre back and in the end, that’s really what he deserved. With the arrival of Sakho and Skrtel’s incredible resurgence, Toure slipped down in the pecking order, only ever really playing ahead of Agger to partner Sakho because he was right-footed.

Then came the mistakes. It became obvious throughout the season that Toure’s best years were behind him (as many expected) but then he started finding new ways to embarrass himself. His awful attempt at a backpass away to West Brom led to us conceding a goal and cost us 3 points; as a result it’s one of a few moments from last season where an error arguably cost us the league.

He then followed that up with a comical own goal away to Fulham that nearly cost us the game as we went on to win 3-2. After that, he was rarely played again as our first choice defenders returned to the side and kept him on the bench.

In the space of six months, he went from being a bargain to a complete liability. While at the beginning of the season fans were pleasantly surprised by the quality of his performances, by February people knew that they were in for a couple of heart attacks whenever Toure’s name was announced on the team sheet.

However, one thing that Toure has been very good at is adding experience and a big presence to the squad. With Jamie Carragher just retired, the squad had lost a big voice in the dressing room. In a long season, those big characters are key, particularly in overcoming disappointing results. Agger and Skrtel have never had that presence and Kolo’s acquisition went a long way towards solving that. Winning the league with Arsenal and Man City gave an added level of experience that even Gerrard doesn’t possess, and don’t doubt that it proved vital to that team throughout the season.

At the moment, it appears that he may be moving to Turkey, with reports suggesting that terms and a fee have been agreed. Either way, if he does stay we may not want him on the pitch anymore, but his role off of it will be very important if we are to win the league this season.